Erasmos I - Pre Race 14 Days to Go: Gibraltar to Las Palmas de Grand Canaria

28:07.679N 15:25.617W It’s now 8 days since we arrived in the Canary Islands and already the memories of the tough journey down from Gibraltar are starting to fade.  Here at the marina, and in the city, it’s just so different from our 7 day passage at sea.  The hospitality and friendliness of the local people (and the ARC organizing staff), the weather, the food, the entertainment have been a delightful tonic to make us actually want to go back to sea for another 3 weeks!  Unbelievable.  Because on the way down there were times I’m sure when each of us privately thought what the heck are we doing here and headed into.  For me that was putting it mildly J We left the harbor at Gibraltar Tuesday Nov 03 early in the morning with a calm sea with a beautiful moon still. read more...

Erasmos I - Pre Race 3 Days to Go: Be prepared, be good little boy scouts

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}28:07.65N  15:25.70W My hat’s off to the ARC (Atlantic Rally Cruisers) organization for the seminars and events they have organized over the last two weeks.  Getting a boat ready for this crossing is a huge undertaking (as an aside, Ron has done an absolutely remarkable job of getting through a huge number of preparation items in advance) and they have done a fine job of organizing a series of education seminars to help you sift through thousands of things you could do, and the more important things you will want to do.  Each seminar is usually an hour in length and they have been held at various yacht clubs and hotels around the marina. . read more...

Erasmos I - Day 0 - Sunday Morning Sunrise

28:07.65N  15:25.70W It’s 7:00 am and the sun is rising over the marina from the east but it hasn’t broken the horizon yet.  It’s starting to get light, and it’s very quiet and peaceful.  Some low clouds scudding across the sky but they don’t look threatening.  I woke early today, around 6:30, which is different from the normal routine over the last fortnight of about 8:00 am. Since the crew was still sound asleep I grabbed a bathroom bag and as quietly as possible snuck out to the public bathrooms for one last shave, wash and toothbrush in a bathroom where you don’t bang your elbows on the walls.  I’ll miss that luxury for the next few weeks J.  There were two other people in the bathroom, even at that. read more...

Erasmos I - Day 4 - Diverting to Cape Verde

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Erasmos I - Day 2 - 24 hours at sea

26:45.0N  16:03.0W At about 9:00 am today Monday, we turned due west.  Hurrah!  Onto the opposite tack and off we go!  Actually now making miles to the destination instead of miles due south.  The winds have dropped a little, and the forecast is for 15-20 tomorrow so hopefully it will get a little easier.  We are doing a lot of bouncing around in the boat and it is of course difficult to sleep in the rolls, rocks and yaws.  But we are off.  If you follow the maps you will see we are south of the Canary islands and headed West.   In the 24 hours since we started we have covered about 150 nautical miles, and that’s a good number for us.   Today we had a radio net call (like a voice blog) and were able to see the positions of the yachts in front of us. But in the scheme of things we. read more...